


Adaptation

by Roca



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: F/F, and periods/menstruation, mentions of inhumane mental health practices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 17:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2858654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roca/pseuds/Roca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helena was never one to hold to the reserved standards of her time, but one cannot alter their entire perception of human relations without a fair amount of confusion and awkwardness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adaptation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hermitstull](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermitstull/gifts).



> For Hermitstull/MFangeleeta for the Being and Wells Holiday Gift Exchange. Cheers!

On Space:

                When human beings interact with each other, there is a set of rules that nobody ever acknowledges but everyone must follow. There are procedures for when to speak and when to stay silent; when to look away and when to stare them down; when to raise your voice and when to let it dwindle into a soft, careful murmur.  
                What Helena has the hardest time with is _space_. In her old life, social etiquette demanded that all interactions be chaste and deliberate. In this new world, gestures and touches are exchanged far more freely, and she struggles to adjust to the playful punches Pete and Myka share and the way Claudia and the others slap hands when they are excited. She was never one to hold to the reserved standards of her time, but one cannot alter their entire perception of human relations without a fair amount of confusion and awkwardness.

                But Helena is shrewd and (aside from the rather stricken expression she still makes whenever anyone hugs her) she learns quickly.

 

On Tampons:

                Myka had always fully believed that the most awkward conversation in her life had occurred at the age of fourteen, when her father had rather belatedly taken it upon himself to explain how babies were made.

                However, she had never expected to deal with a time traveler from Victorian England who was very, very reluctant to talk about periods. It took her a full ten minutes of coaxing to even get Helena to admit that she was having her “lady time,” but Myka caught on immediately and pulled out a tampon from her bag. In the time in which it took the confusion on Helena’s face to shift to horror once she realized just where the little tube of cotton was to go, Myka realized that A) the way menstruation was handled in the late 1800’s was probably a lot different than today and B) Helena would probably be happier with a pad. She found an old bag of them stashed away in Claudia’s drawer in the bathroom and gave the lot to Helena, who accepted them with all the dignity she could muster.

                Thankfully, she was able to figure out how they worked by herself.

 

On the Internet:

                Of all humanity’s successes, from cures to illnesses and inventions that let them reach the stars, Helena couldn’t help but believe that the World Wide Web was the finest. Just think of it: hundreds of millions of souls, all bound together through the power of a single signal that spanned the globe. Hundreds of lives on a few keystrokes away. The answer to any question at your fingertips. The accumulated knowledge of history in its entirety there for the taking.

                The Internet dazzled Helena. The humans who used it didn’t.

                She couldn’t understand why, with a resource at their disposal that would let them build communities and friendships and even different lives, people would chose to use it as a tool for spreading hatred. They used the anonymity it provided as a mask beneath which they could freely spew out their anger in poorly-written phrases that lacked both sense and punctuation marks.

                Even when they weren’t being purposefully rude, humans still abused the Internet’s power horribly. With such a tool for learning in their grasp, how could anyone have time to use it for any other purpose than education or communication?

                (However, after Claudia spent two hours revealing the wonders of cat videos to her, she did come to realize that some allowances could be made.)

 

On Transportation:

                Automobiles, of course, had changed a great deal since her day. She remembered being fascinated by them, but had never felt the need to buy one. She was in the business of creating new inventions, not ogling machines that had already been made (no matter how interesting).

                But now everyone had them; they were almost as crucial a part of life as having a home. No more did they strain to reach twelve miles per hour – they comfortably cruised to fifty and even sixty, and Helena couldn’t believe her eyes when Myka pointed out that her speedometer went all the way up to one hundred and twenty. When she’d asked, in a rather awed voice, why anyone would need to move so quickly, Myka admitted that she didn’t know.

                And on the subject of swiftness, look at the trains! Look at their airplanes and rockets and boats, thundering and roaring across the world with shining steel and gnashing engines. Everything was just as far apart as it had been, but at the same time, everyone was closer.

As always, the paradox of human creation delighted her.

 

On Medicine:

                When Claudia inadvertently confessed that she had spent time in a mental institution, Helena had marveled at the fact that she was still alive, much less cheerful and functioning. But the stories Claudia told, when pressed, of the place where she had been held did not at all match Helena’s understanding of sanatoriums. She’d talked of therapy, medication, and “smartass shrinks,” yes, but not once did she mention being chained to walls or tied to a bed or left in a drugged stupor while the world ate itself away.

                She had to wonder how different her life would have been if psychology had been more developed in her age. Would she have gone to “counseling,” told her “therapist” her woes, and been cured of the grief and rage that had shadowed her every footstep since her daughter’s death?

                Or perhaps other medical advancements would have been enough to save her in the first place. Myka had told her of incredible things, of limbs stitched back in place, of sight restored to the blind, of other souls that had been pulled back from the brink of death.

                But perhaps everything would have turned out the same, and she would have wreaked the same vengeance while Christina’s blood spread across the carpet.

 

On Love:

                Mercifully, some things never change. Helena feels the same thump of life in her veins and breathes the same air. The sky is still pale blue and the clouds stroll ponderously across its expanse, and the fresh-cut grass is still green and smells of pears. There remain sixty-four squares of black and white on each chessboard and everyone’s smiles yet mean _hello_ or _that’s nice_ or _good job_.

                The taste of a lover, the feel of their kisses lined up in a row on her collarbones – these too are the same. And yet different, so different, because she has never felt the intensity of emotion that she feels now for the woman lying across from her, dark curls thrown across the bedspread as she traces the length of Helena’s spine with her fingers. When she looks over at Myka, her smile means _I love you_.

                No, the way of living and loving itself did not change, but perhaps Helena has. 


End file.
